


Day 6: Meeting In the Middle

by Fundelstein



Series: Cloti Fall Festival 2020 [6]
Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Art School, Alternate Universe - College/University, Cloti Fall Festival 2020, Discord: Final Heaven, F/M, Library, Mutual Pining, Podfic Welcome, Shyness, annoying friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27638417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fundelstein/pseuds/Fundelstein
Summary: Day 6 of the Cloti Fall FestivalPrompt: Desire/WishesDue to circumstances, a hapless Cloud and Tifa pine for each other at a distance.
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Series: Cloti Fall Festival 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974253
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	Day 6: Meeting In the Middle

**Her Side**

_He’s never gonna talk to me._

Cloud was the lone wolf that everyone knew. The shining star that no one could reach. Some people hated him. Some people praised him. But no matter what anyone felt, no one could say they were indifferent. He was a student in the visual arts department. She was studying ballet and jazz. She was the friendly, popular girl that everyone wanted to talk to. He was the aloof, quiet boy that most people watched from afar.

They couldn’t be any further apart.

She often saw him, when her friends took a certain path through campus. He always sat on the hill above, drawing away in that sketchbook of his. Most of the time, he was alone. But lately, one of the seniors had been hanging around him. The cheeky tall, dark, and handsome type.

_What was his name again?_

“That’s Zack, isn’t it?” Yuffie stopped dead in her tracks. We all stopped with her.

“Ooh,” Jessie cooed. “It sure is.” Then she looked at Cloud and scowled. “But why he’s hanging around that creep?”

Priscilla shrugged. “No accounting for taste?”

Tifa wanted to scoff.

Once upon a time, Jessie had it bad for him. She chased him around for two whole months; seeking him out at lunch, following him around between classes. From my view of things, he had tolerated it bemused silence. But apparently one day, she pushed too far and he finally told her that she didn’t have a chance in hell.

Jessie never liked being told “no”.

No, not Jessie the drama student. Ever the drama queen.

Jessie blew a raspberry. “Come on, let’s get going.” She powered on down the cement path. Yuffie and Priscilla followed after her. I stopped to take one more look. Zack was practically draped over Cloud’s shoulders, and he was laughing.

She ran to catch up to her friends.

“Who does he think he is?” grumbled Jessie. “He’s just uppity because he won first place in that contest!”

_You only noticed him because he won that contest._

“Guess it’s true that the pretty ones are real jerks,” replied Yuffie.

“But Zack seems to like him fine,” Priscilla pointed out.

“Zack likes everyone,” she snapped. “And honestly, he’s way too good for him.” Her mood lightened a little and she smirked. “I would’ve tried my luck on him too, but Aerith got to him first. Too bad.”

Tifa’s mouth moved before she could stop. “Cloud seems to like him too, so he can’t be that uppity. And they get along fine. Isn’t that enough for _them_?”

The girls turned to me in wide-eyed shock. It was too late to take it back. So, she thought to herself, _Might as well say my peace._ Tifa looked Jessie right in the eye.

“Just because he didn’t want to go out with you… doesn’t make him a jerk. He wasn’t obligated to like you.”

Jessie turned red in the face. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish.

Tifa waved her off. “I’m out of here. See you guys later.

She run on ahead, escaping my mistake.

Jessie called after her. “Huh? What the hell? Wait… Tifa! Wait!”

There. That was all the courage she had.

If only she had enough guts to walk up that hill and sit next to him.

But who was she kidding? He knew she and Jessie were friends. After what happened, she realized that Cloud couldn’t stand people like Jessie. And he probably wouldn’t stand being around her.

Still, she can’t stop thinking that maybe, just maybe…

After leaving her friends in the dust, Tifa grabbed a quick latte at the university cafe. Then she stopped by at the library for a bit because… where else was she going to go? She had already finished all of her dance courses for the day, and she didn’t feel like heading out on the town... but she and Jessie lived in the same dorm house. And Jessie never let things go so easily.

On the way inside, Tifa saw the clouds rolling in. She should’ve known it was going to rain. By the time she found a book she wanted to check out, the first raindrops were falling from the sky. The next thing she knew, it was pouring to beat the band. Her without her umbrella.

So she perched herself on a musty smelling chair, somewhere close to a window, and opened a book of old fairy tales on her lap. The library was nearly empty, save for a few stragglers and a librarian or two. All she could do was sit and wait.

A few minutes later, someone came shuffling through the bookshelves.

“Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!” he whispered.

Tifa looked up.

And there he was. Out from the bookshelves came a soggy Cloud Strife. He came shivering and towards the table in front of her. He dropped his bag on a table and hung his drenched jacket on a chair. Her lungs seized. She hid behind the safety of my book.

She listened to him shuffling at the table.

_Why of all places did he have to come here?_

She look up over the edge of her book.

Cloud was staring at her, wide-eyed and blinking. He raised a single hand and flashed the most awkward smile she had ever seen.

“Uh… hi.”

The book fell out of her hands. It tumbled to the floor.

_He just talked to you. He just talked to you._

_Come on. Say something. SAY SOMETHING._

Tifa opened her mouth to speak. “I… um… hi!” It came out in a high pitched squeak.

_Well, that could’ve gone worse..._

**His Side**

_I wish I could talk to her._

The first time he saw her, she was dancing. Cloud had been sitting under a pavilion eating a snack, when a couple of dancers suddenly came traipsing over to flash bomb the other students. The girls were dressed in peasant skirts and glittering crop tops and coin belts around their waists. They twirled around under the pavilion, teasing and wowing everyone in sight. He thought they looked like flowers.

Tifa had come to him, dressed in red, and leaped on the bench seat. She hopped onto the table— swaying, shimmying, twisting— and gave me a wink. She laughed, she danced, she egged everyone on. He must have turned bright red. But in the next moment, it was all over. The girls swept out of the pavilion and onto the field, a stampede of fluttering colors. And then they were gone.

She was gone.

That afternoon, he had been planning to draw an old oak tree. He ended up drawing a dancer instead.

After that, he kept seeing her everywhere. In the cafeteria. In the cafe. That dance expo last week. She and her friends liked to take this certain path on campus. The hill up above was his favorite sketching spot. One glimpse a day was enough for him. It was all he could do for now…

“Hey, chocobo head!”

Cloud braced himself for Zack’s tight embrace. “Oof!”

“Playing stalker again today?” asked Zack.

His ears singed red. “I… not a stalker! I’m just...”

“Shh!” Zack cut him off. “Here she comes...”

Cloud whipped his head around. Tifa and her friends were walking down the path. A smile twitched onto his face.

“Cute as hell, isn’t she?” Zack whispered in his ear.

Cloud laughed and tried to wriggle away. “You have a girlfriend.”

Zack’s grip was too strong. “I can appreciate a girl’s looks.”

“Wait ‘till I tell Aerith that.”

Zack gasped dramatically. “You wouldn’t betray me like that, buddy?”

“Cut the drama, Zack. You’re a cellist, not an actor.”

Cloud took one more look. The girls were steaming on ahead. Tifa had fallen behind.

“I say you go down there and _talk_ to her,” said Zack.

“Can’t do that. _Jessie’s_ down there with her.”

Zack snorted. “Who cares about her? Good riddance.”

“Who knows what she told them after that. Tifa… she probably thinks I’m a jerk!”

Zack lets him go and shrugged. “Only one way to find out. And if she’s bought into Jessie’s crap… she ain’t worth it, man. At least you’ll be able to stop moping.”

Cloud sighed and buried his face against his sketchbook.

_Who knows. Maybe I’m only crazy about a fantasy._

“By the way,” said Zack. “You might wanna leave soon.”

He pointed towards the sky in the distance. A thick layer of gray was gathering itself in the east.

Cloud flinched at the sight of it. “Don’t see a silver lining in those clouds. But we’ve got time, don’t we?”

Sometimes, Cloud hated it when Zack was right.

They had stopped by the campus store to get some snacks. They had intended to study in their dorm house. But on the way, the first raindrops came falling from above. They tried to outrun the rain, but the storm was determined to see them drenched. They ended up making a run for the library.

Cloud stomped on the run while Zack shook out a flimsy excuse of an umbrella. It was pink and dainty and utterly useless for the both of them.

“Isn’t that Aerith’s?” asked Cloud.

“Yeah, she forgot it the other day,” Zack explained. “And I couldn’t find mine.”

Of course.

They scuttled towards the back. If they couldn’t make it to the dorm house, they would have to do it here. At least it would be quieter.

Cloud shivered as they passed through the bookshelves. “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!”

He shrugged off his backpack and dropped it on the table. _Gaia, I hope my books aren’t wet!_ He took off his jacket and slung it on the chair to dry. Then he looked up.

Tifa Lockhart was sitting in a chair. Right in front of him. Cloud froze. Then he gagged.

_What… what is she doing here!?_

He looked behind him to see what Zack thought of all this.

Zack had turned around in the opposite direction. The man was leaving him to the wolves.

The traitor.

_What… is this? Is this a some kind of set-up?_

He looked back. Tifa’s face was hidden behind the book. But then, her eyes looked up. They met each other’s gaze.

_Say something. Say something. She’s right there, so just SAY SOMETHING._

He raised a single hand (what? Was he trying to wave?) and said, “Um… hi.”

Smooth. Real smooth.

_Somebody kill me._

Tifa dropped the book like it was burning her. It fell to the ground.

“I… um… hi.”

She looked down at her shoes and blushed.

_Wait… why is she blushing? Is that a good thing? That has to be a good thing? But why is that a good thing? I’m certainly not putting on the charm._

“Um… it’s really pouring out there,” he said (keeping his library voice).

“It... sure is,” she replied. “Glad _I_ didn’t caught in it.”

Cloud snorted. She covered her mouth in a giggle.

_Okay. You got this. YOU’VE GOT THIS. Now roll with it._

And he went over to talk to her.

**Both Sides**

“Yeah, she went and talked a lot of crap,” Tifa said. “And Yuffie and Priss went along with her. Sorry about that.”

They sat across from each other at the table. Cloud offered her some cheese crackers he sneaked into the library. She took a pinch and crunched as quietly as she could.

“But now you?” asked Cloud.

Tifa let out a long-suffering sigh. “I’ve learned to take some of the stuff she says with a grain of salt. This one guy who blew her off? She convinced herself he was gay.”

“Hmm.”

Zack passed through with a stack of books. He walked behind Tifa and gave him a thumbs up. Cloud narrowed his eyes. Tifa swerved her head and saw Zack’s retreating back.

“Ignore him,” Cloud told her. “He caught the lunatic disease when we got doused.”

Tifa chuckled. Cloud smiled.

“So those are fairy tales,” he said. He tapped his finger on her book.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I know I’m too old for that, but I love them.”

“No one’s too old for those. If you were, it wouldn’t even be here.”

Tifa smoothed a stray lock behind her ear. “That’s true… I guess.”

Cloud tried not to marvel at her earlobes. “And even if you were, it’s still cool. I think you’re cool...”

“What?” Her eyebrows scrunched.

“That day, when you flash mobbed that crowd,” he said. “I thought you were cool.”

Tifa sniggered and flushed all the more. “Oh that? Sorry about dancing on you like that. Our dance teacher. She told once me… the easiest way to rile up the crowd… well, “Tease the person who’ll blush the most.”

And she had sized him up just right.

“For a while now,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about doing a few pieces. Based on a few fairy tales.”

Tifa’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, which ones?”

“Not sure,” he replied. “But I’m liking the morbid. Like ‘The Red Dancing Shoes’ or ‘Sun, Moon, and Talia’.”

She grinned and opened the book. “I think ‘Sun, Moon, and Talia’ are in here. Let me check.” She ran a finger over the table of contents and found it. She flipped the pages. “Right here.”

Tifa pushed out of her chair, picked up the book, and carried it over to him. She took the seat next to him. They sat side by side, examining a very grim illustration of Princess Talia on her bed.

 _She smells like coffee,_ Cloud thought.

 _He smells like paint,_ Tifa mused.

They read the story together with hushed words, equally disgusted and delighted at the heroine’s fate. They kept at it so long and so deeply, neither one of them noticed when the rain had stopped.

And Zack didn’t bothering telling them.


End file.
